Beginner’s Guide to Legal Design: What It Is and Why It Matters

Discover the basics of legal design in this comprehensive beginner’s guide. Learn what legal design is, why it matters, and how it can make the law more accessible. Find essential resources and examples to explore the world of legal design.

We’re sure you’ve heard of this buzzword many, many times. Legal design: contracts with super slick and striking icons, gorgeous fonts, diagrams, and visuals. But what is legal design, actually?

This is chapter 1 of the “Legal Design Basics.”

When was the last time you signed up for a website and accepted the privacy policy, and genuinely read the whole document? If you were not reading, it was too dry and boring; welcome 🎉 you’re at the right place.

Long and tedious terms and conditions are usually not read.

1 — What is legal design?

The official definition of legal design is as follows: “Legal design is an innovative approach that combines the principles of law and design to create more user-friendly, accessible, and effective legal solutions and legal processes.”

But it’s all about making the law easier to understand and more accessible to use! Legal design is like giving the law a makeover, making it simpler and more user-friendly. It’s not just for lawyers but for everyone who deals with the law.

Why it matters: Since legal jargon is complex, it’s beneficial to design the legal system and process it in such a way that it’s understandable for everyone. So that everyone knows what is happening in the legal world and what affects who and who affects what.

The legal design focuses on the end-user and ensures their needs are addressed. This can be another lawyer, a judge, but often regular Joe and Jane. The law can be confusing, scary, and outright unkind. But with legal design, there’s the possibility for empathy and understanding. Making legal matters straightforward and understandable empowers everyone.

Legal design can also encourage creativity. By thinking outside the box and coming up with fun and innovative ways to make the law more interesting and approachable. With legal design, the things you can create are endless. From crystal clear visuals to interactive tools. A great example is the Maryland Court App, an application that helps people navigate the courts. It’s not just about flashy contracts.

2- So, what is “not” legal design?

Just improving the aesthetics of contracts with decorative icons and trendy fonts is not an effective “legal design product.” Adding informative icons and legible typography and hierarchy is a great first step, but that’s part of finishing the product. Applying these design principles is ineffective without applying the core rule of legal design: putting the end user at the heart of the design process.

Why it matters: Legal solutions that ignore the needs of users, that do not promote inclusivity, or traditional legal documents filled with legal jargon don’t help our society or marginalized community to navigate better in the legal procedures.

Now let’s have a look at two examples. First, you’ll see a complex legal contract written by lawyers for lawyers with legal jargon.

Most people will not even try to read this.

Let’s have a look at what legal design can bring clarity to our lives.

In the example above, the difference is as clear as night and day. Above, there’s an example of general terms and conditions. This is hard to read, boring, filled with legal jargon, and made to cover for the bank’s legal team, not the user. Below, there’s a declaration of intent that explains in simple and clear terms what’s expected from the user and what the user can expect in return. Both are legal documents, but only one is made with the end user in mind.

A declaration of intent, designed by Patroon, with everything the user can expect and what will be expected of him in clear and simple terms.

3- Introductory resources for legal design

The term ‘legal design’ is steadily getting more attention, and more people are becoming aware of its efficiency in communication and legal context. But to truly grasp legal design, it’s necessary to understand its interconnection with design thinking, user experience design, research skills, and even some communication/graphic design skills.

The legal design makes complex things clear. Designed by people, for people.

Why it matters: Legal design and design thinking are inextricably intertwined. They both are about understanding the needs of users and coming up with some innovative ideas to make the law more accessible. Adding communication design is like the icing on the cake. It’s about using revealing visuals and interactive elements to make legal information more interesting, informative, and engaging.

For the ones who are into creative problem-solving and making remarkable legal products, legal design, design thinking, and communication design are worth checking out. With these skills, the law can be made easy, empowering, and maybe even fun. 😊

For those who want to start immediately, here is a list of blog posts about design thinking:

• IDEO’s Design Thinking
• Interaction Design Foundation’s Definition of Design Thinking
• Nielsen & Norman’s Definition of Design Thinking

4- Essential Reading for understanding legal design

Here are some of the most essential readings for you to understand legal design and its principles better:

• Law By Design — Margaret Hagan This is one of the most well-known resources for legal designers. Understanding the core concept of legal design is very important in terms of what you want to achieve in the context of legal design.
• Legal Communication Design Website This website is run by Stanford Legal Design Lab, and it’s quite good for understanding communicative legal design.

This is just the beginning of a journey. The next chapter is about the world of design thinking. It’s a great introduction to what’s the fundamentals of legal design.

This post is originally published on our website Patroon. You can check the original version, which is in Dutch, here -> Beginnersgids: legal design